Overview of Hydroponics Consumption of tomatoes in the United States has reached 4.3 billion pounds each year. When consumers are willing to pay double or triple standard prices for a great tasting, blemish free product, buyers and sellers alike can smile at the possibilities. Repeated pricing studies have shown that only high-quality, garden vegetables, such as tomatoes, cucumbers, salad crops...

A model is presented that predicts pH and electrical conductivity (EC) changes in the root zone of lettuce (Lactuca sativa cv. Vivaldi) grown in a deep–trough hydroponic system. A feedforward neural network is the basis of that modeling. The neural network model has nine inputs (pH, EC, nutrient solution temperature, air temperature, relative humidity, light intensity, plant age, amount of adde...

Assessing microbiological quality assurance by monitoring bacteria in various sources of freshwater used for human consumption, recreation, and food preparation is important for a healthy life. Bacterial number and their community structure in freshwater should be determined as quickly as possible, and "real-time" and "on-site" microbiological methods are required. In this study, we examined th...

The regulation of mineral accumulation in plants is genetically complex, with several genetic loci involved in the control of one mineral and loci affecting the accumulation of different minerals. To investigate the role of growth medium and organ type on the genetics of mineral accumulation, two existing (LerxKond, LerxAn-1) and one new (LerxEri-1) Arabidopsis thaliana Recombinant Inbred Line ...

1 Most measurements of nutrient uptake use either hydroponic systems or soil-grown 2 roots that have been disturbed by excavation. The first objective of this study was to 3 test how root excavation affects nitrate uptake. Rates of NO3 uptake by mycorrhizal 4 loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.) seedlings were measured in intact sand-filled columns, 5 hydroponics, and disturbed sand-filled columns. T...

The nitrate contents of various vegetables were analyzed by ion chromatography. It was shown that tahtsai, spinach, chingentsai and pakchoi contained more than 300 mg of nitrate per 100 g of edible portion. There was a significant difference in the nitrate content of leaf, stem and edible portion of chingentsai between summer and winter, and there was a significant difference in the nitrate con...

1. This document is HS405, one of a series of the Horticultural Sciences Department, Florida Cooperative Extension Service, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida. Original publication date, January 2010. Visit the EDIS Web site at http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu. 2. Richard Tyson, director, Orange County Extension Office, Orlando, FL; Robert Hochmuth, multicounty extension...